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PAES discusses suicide prevention in education

27/09/2019

PAES discusses suicide prevention in the context of education
Meeting focuses on the importance of addressing suicide so that it is no longer taboo

"Suicide: what does Education have to do with it?" – this was the theme of the forum held by the Program of Actions and Studies on Suicide (PAES), of the Psychology course in Bahiana, which took place on September 27th and 28th, at Campus Cabula da Escola Bahiana de Medicina e Saúde Pública, in line with the Yellow September, a movement that calls attention to suicide prevention. Faced with the finding of an increase in the rates of death by suicide among children and adolescents, in Brazil and worldwide, professionals from all areas mobilized in search of the causes for this phenomenon.

According to PAES, the blame is generally attributed to unstructured homes, substance abuse and consumption in the digital universe, the dissemination of disastrous examples on social networks, the educational system, which pressures and massifies, mental disorders, bullying , among others. However, specialized training is still a tiny fraction of public policies and private initiatives. Professionals who face the problem do not know how to act preventively and, even less, when a suicide attempt is a reality. "It is necessary to talk about suicide" – this is the phrase that echoes insistently. "Suicide is considered almost an epidemic in health, and we perceive an infinite lack of preventive actions, post-suicide actions, for those who remain", says the professor of the Psychology course at Bahiana and PAES coordinator, Aicil Franco. According to her, the PAES is composed solely of students and former students of the Bahiana and there are already students from other institutions integrating the group that has been carrying out actions in schools, hospitals and churches.

Aicil reaffirms the importance of talking about suicide, but draws attention to the fact that we are well prepared to address the topic: "Talking works, without a doubt. Why is it important to talk? Because if we don't talk, it becomes a myth, taboo or something to be hidden. Talking about suicide makes it easier for people who are suffering silently thinking, devising ways to kill themselves, to be able to speak, to be able to ask for help and realize that there are ways to minimize that suffering and not take their own life. speaking is important. But we have discussed a lot in our group about what to say and how to speak. It is not enough to speak, we need to have specialists in the subject, we need to multiply our knowledge so that public school teachers, attendants and hospital technicians know how to listen the person who is trying to kill himself or who tried to kill himself. We still find a lot of prejudice, a lot of rejection, a lot of blaming towards those who tried to commit suicide, we don't have c understanding that that person has a lot of suffering, sometimes even an illness, it is important to talk, but it is important to know how to talk, how and when".

The opening table was attended by the coordinator of the Psychology course, professor Sylvia Barreto, and the coordinator of People Development, Luiza Ribeiro, who, at the time, represented the dean of Bahiana, Dr. Maria Luisa Carvalho Soliani. Together they addressed the theme "Suicide and Education: what the Bahiana does it have to do with it?”. On the occasion, several actions were presented that are carried out with employees and students, in order to promote them a better quality of life as a form of prevention and preservation of mental health.

Sylvia Barreto explains that the PAES emerged in 2015, from a demand of undergraduate students of the Psychology course, which consisted in the completion of Course Completion Papers on the subject, which led to setting up, together with Professor Ailcil, the group studies that ended up culminating in other actions. "This shows how our curriculum is alive and transversal. The contents are within the curricular components, but we can develop skills, in this case, the theme of suicide and mental health in various ways. We know that mental suffering is there, it's complex and it's in the clinic and in other areas of psychology and the PAES is another strategy for us to discuss these issues."

Luiza Ribeiro explains that the actions developed with the institution's community are always aimed at prevention and health promotion: "We develop a holistic look at the people who work here and the care we should have with them, because these people will form people who will take care of other people. So, all the actions that we develop, be they formative or recreational, are social actions that give meaning to our doing, to our work. When we present the structure of Bahiana, we say that we work on prevention and health promotion, and this is perceived by students, teachers, employees of the Bahiana and by those who live around the institution. people have in Bahiana a huge reference of joy, art and care".

During the two days, several roundtables were held, in addition to the workshops: "Suicide, Education and Racial Relations"; "Suicide, Education, Sexuality and Gender"; "Suicide, Education and Harm Reduction"; "Use of art as a protective factor"; "Enabling professionals to work with suicide" and "Suicide attempt and first aid".